8-1/2 WOMEN (Lions Gate) Starring: John Standing, Matthew Delamere, Polly Walker, Vivian Wu, Shizuka Inoh, Barbara Sarafian, Toni Collette, Amanda Plummer, Kirina Mano, Natacha Amal. Screenplay: Peter Greenaway. Producers: Kees Kasander. Director: Peter Greenaway. MPAA Rating: R (nudity, sexual situations, profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 120 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
In 8-1/2 WOMEN, Peter Greenaway makes a film, and several completely nude men and women appear ... but I repeat myself. Greenaway's sensibilities have never shied away from provocative issues or images, specifically where the human body is concerned. His obsession with flesh has played a prominent role in his most prominent films: THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER; THE PILLOW BOOK; and PROSPERO'S BOOKS, in which even Sir John Gielgud dropped trou. Yes indeed, Peter Greenaway loves putting naked people on the screen. In 8-1/2 WOMEN, lead actor John Standing's genitalia get so much screen time, they probably should have gotten third billing in the credits.
The question with Greenaway has always been whether there is much to his exercises in conspicuous kink besides the conspicuous kink itself. In the case of 8-1/2 WOMEN, the answer is, "Sort of." The story concerns Philip Emmenthal (Standing), a 55-year-old millionaire banker living in Geneva, and his son Storey (Matthew Delamere). As the film opens, Philip's wife has just passed away, leaving him despondent. Storey, however, is convinced that the old man just needs to jump back in the saddle, and tries to persuade him to seek female companionship. Ultimately, he comes up with an even more intriguing idea: Turn their Swiss mansion into a private harem made up of women who are indebted to them in some fashion. Thus the rooms are filled with women like Griselda (Toni Collette), a former nun; Simato (Shizuka Inoh), a compulsive gambler; Giaconda (Natacha Amal), who loves to be pregnant; and Beryl (Amanda Plummer), whose tastes run to livestock.
By the time 8-1/2 WOMEN winds to its conclusion, it's hard to imagine a sexual fetish or taboo that's been left unexplored or undiscussed. There's incest and bestiality, transgender role-playing and racial role-playing, madonna/whores and servant girls. There's even the ghastly sight of Amanda Plummer in neck brace and the kind of garish make-up usually associated with the Emcee in CABARET. Don't mistake this, however, for a film designed to arouse anything but curiosity. The episodes appear and disappear as though the whole enterprise were simply a fashion show for perversity, with scarcely a hint of eroticism to get in the way. As flesh-baring free-for-alls go, this one is pretty flaccid stuff.
In a way, however, that absence of sexual intensity is what the film is all about. In a reflexive gag based on a reflexive film, Greenaway has his two main characters comment on Fellini's 8-1/2, with Philip wondering "how many film-makers ... make films simply to act out their sexual fantasies," to which Storey replies, "All of them, I suppose." 8-1/2 WOMEN becomes Greenaway's acting out of his realization that sexual fantasies can't be brought to life, or they're no longer fantasies. Philip may have had a sexually unadventurous life with his wife, but he discovers that there are inevitable pitfalls to dealing with outrageous quests for pleasure; only when he begins to fall for one of his women (Polly Walker) does he seem happy in his self-made sex palace. In his typically skewed fashion, Greenaway has made an intentionally un-titillating cautionary tale.
If only Greenaway's films felt as much like stories of real people as they felt like lessons. There's no question that Greenaway is a superb film stylist; he crafts powerful compositions like the interchanging medium- and close-range shot of the father and son conversing by the indoor pool, ripples reflecting off the walls. His films too often lack real emotional resonance, however, and 8-1/2 WOMEN is no exception. There are isolated moments when Philip's grief seems more central to the story than the director's aesthetics, and there's a surprisingly funny scene in which one female servant discusses her failed "try-out" for the harem with a co-worker. More often, 8-1/2 WOMEN is another case of Greenaway giving his audience lots to look at, a bit less to think about and virtually nothing to feel. He's a maker of intriguing but only fitfully satisfying films that happen to include lots of penises and breasts. He may be cinema's foremost purveyor of art-core porn.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 art-cores: 6.
Visit Scott Renshaw's Screening Room http://www.inconnect.com/~renshaw/ *** Subscribe to receive new reviews directly by email! See the Screening Room for details, or reply to this message with subject "Subscribe".
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews